Incubator Comparison: Farm Innovators vs Nurture Right | How to Incubate Eggs | Heartway Farms 

We learned to spray them with peroxide when putting them in the incubator. We went from getting around 10 chicks to 20-25. Come to find out it’s an industry secret. Hope it helps

I just found your channel because you were talking about incubators. I wish that I would have watched your channel before buying another brand of incubator. I’m a former science teacher and now I’m a homesteader. Life is now ongoing science projects. We have 10 chickens and 4 ducks. I have never been so happy 😊

I am in North Carolina. The state banned public bird sales and bird shows. Your video has come at a perfect time.

We have hatched prior using the little giant - we were gifted the egg turner which worked great when I was working my nursing job. But when I went to set It up this year - there was a problem and because I got them used from a friend I just went ahead and purchased the farm innovator also. Can’t wait to watch yours while i wait for mine to arrive so we can start as well! Love that you shared all this info!

What a beautiful family, and a beautiful life. One day I will have a home as nurturing as this one seems. Much love all! Thanks for the videos to help us all prepare.

What fun... thank you for sharing this experience, Tabatha and Jessie, thank you for helping out, hope all your eggs hatch with beautiful and healthy chick's. I hope you all had a very blessed weekend

So great to see you folks talking about this! Thank you! In Minnesota looking to buy our third ever batch of chicks after moving this fall and bringing all our pullets to a local farm last winter. Nervous about sourcing them in a new area. Appreciate this info! 🙌🏼 Probably feeling brave enough to try to incubate ourselves now. ☺️ Loved our California White! Apparently, she's dominating the flock she was brought into at the farm. I really liked our black Australorps, too. A couple of them would lay two eggs a day during summer. Blessings to you and your fam!

I really like how you teach your kids and potentially just reminding them but you treat ut like a reminder instead of do this, do that. Allows them a friendly reminder and still the autonomy to get in and get involved and learn for themselves. Very respectful way to teach your children to become lifelong learners and get them involved. 👏

Just purchased a Farm Innovators. Paper says to use distilled WARM water. Thank you for sharing this video. Quite helpful.

I am new to chicken raising. I have investigated buying an incubator verses just buying baby chicks from my local store. The self-turning incubators cost anywhere from $60-$160 for the amount I want to incubate. Buying 20 chicks from the store cost me $70 and they guarantee that they are all hens, AND guarantee them all alive. So I guess I will buy from the store and hope I get a broody hen. I will be buying an incubator though just incase the government wants to stop the purchase of live chicks in stores. Thanks for the info.

Laughed out loud at the birds and the bees part 😂😂 Great video!!! I want to do this with the kids, what a wonderful learning experience it would be. Maybe I can talk my mom into hatching out a couple of her chicken eggs! You guys are always fun to watch and full of good information!!!

Thank you so much for this video. My husband and I are just getting started with the chicken business (as in, we are just getting a coop together and are going to venture into chickens) so I am trying to learn everything I can! This was very educational. I appreciate you and your family so much.

This could not have come at a better time. I told my husband I want to have an incubator on hand in case we need to reproduce our own chicks. I think its a wise investment. Also purchased some breeds this month that are known to go broody. Either way... food security!

This is so exciting to watch! I love farm life!

We have heard about the bird flu going on. My grandmother raised chickens & sold eggs to buy flour, sugar, etc. for the most part my grandparents were self sufficient.

Hatching eggs is so much fun. We just did duck eggs for the first time. We have been doing chickens for a few years.

Great video, thank you so much for sharing! We got our incubator today.

I Would love to have an updates on this process. Thank you love your videos and bless your family they are Amazing.

Thank you for doing this video. Just looked at these tonight at tractor supply. Our baby chicks we got several weeks ago are really growing. I told my husband we need to get this. Can not wait to hatch my own.

Just came across you guys and gals!!! Seeing your homestead/farm is motivation! I'm 25 years old and have such a strong urge to homestead! My husband and I have 3 little ones 5,3,1 and you're encouragement keep it up! God bless #FJB #SelfSuffiencency

May God bless you all ❤ Always have Faith and Pray , remember God will always be by our side to help us with anything we go through ❤ God Loves you all no matter what , also Forgive and Love your enemies as God will Forgive you too ❤

This is such a relevant video. 👏 Thank you!

I needed this ! thanks

My husband and I were just talking about possibly hatching our own.....our hens have just been used for laying, so we've been thinking about buying an incubator...

I need to get the egg roller for mine . I bought last yr and haven’t used it yet and didn’t realize it wasn’t a automatic roller ugh . GODBLESS sweetie thank you

I live way down in primitive México. Nobody knows about the thermostat. I made mine from a medicine cooler and used an aquarium thermostat. All fine after 11 days. Chickens and eggs everywhere as they run free and no insects.

Very first time seeing your channel. Great for me as I'm going to start some chicks myself after about 40 years years of not being around chickens. Wife and I are retired now and are doing some of the things for fun that we "HAD" to do growing up at home. Seems funner (?) now that we're not being forced into labor by our parents. LOL My daughter has the farm innovations unit and some fertile eggs for us to start and I ordered some chicks from Farm& Fleet. I subscribed to you channel because of the content and sensible to the point format. And a lot had to do with the fact that you didn't call your chicks "baby chicks". You seem like real folks to me, and I like that. Lets face it folks, ain't no such thing as a baby chick, or a baby calf, or a baby puppy etc. babies don't have babies. You'll see Bigfoot ride past on a unicorn long before you'll see a baby chick, so thanks for that HF. And no, I'm not a woke wanna be homesteader. I have lived on a farm most of my years growing up and own a hobby farm now. I didn't homestead it I just plain bought it. God Bless America and keep your powder dry!

Awesome thanks .

Thanks for the video!

Great info thanks 🙏🏼

Bedankt voor de uitleg

Good video. I use a Havobator incubator so I like the one from farm innovators. I too went with the egg turner because turning eggs 3 - 5 times a day is a big deal. The other incubator you are trying - I am not convinced. It always rotates the eggs in the same direction which is advised against because it can cause the chalaza (umbilical chord) to twist and therefore starve the chick. I have heard people like it, but for that reason I am not convinced. I noticed a couple things I thought I would point out (please don't be offended)....Your eggs should all be about the same size to ensure a consistent hatch date. Alternatively, put your smaller eggs in earlier; You also don't want to use the super pointy eggs or the super big ones. You can incubate up to 1 week old eggs - just leave sit on the counter in a carton and tip the carton back and forth a couple times a day so the yolk does not stick to the side of the egg. But I have to say that my main concern is that you only have 3 roosters for that many hens.....the recommended ratio is 1 rooster for 10 hens. So there is a good chance quite a few of these eggs will be infertile. It will be an interesting experiment. I guess we will find out at day 7 when you candle them to find out viability. If I could be so forward as to suggest taking 20 -30 of your hens and locking them in their own pen with the roosters to increase your odds - no sense going through all this work to not have viable eggs. Just a thought. Question for you though - as your rooster to hen ratio on these eggs will be 50/50 what are your plans for the roosters? raise them for meat or?? To replace that flock, you have a lot of chicks to hatch...the sportsman incubator might be for you...expensive yes but it hatches out large numbers. I find that combining chicks that are greater than a month apart in age is really problematic both from a feeding perspective and from the older birds picking on the younger, so the larger incubator helps with that. But yes, I realize it is super expensive. And one reason I continue to use a similar model to you...just hatch for fun and specific breeds. I have 200 hens, so that's 8 runs of the incubator and then I have 200 roosters to deal with.....it has been something I struggle with. Do you can your old hens or what do you do with them? I hope I am not being too forward as that is not the intent - I am just trying to help. Great video you two! I look forward to seeing how things turn out and what your thoughts on these two incubators are. Take care, keep smiling and God Bless.

I have 2 foam incubators, one little giant with turner, (I have never had eggs in past day 18, I use it for setting-turning), and one I use to hatch my eggs in still air farm innovators.

You also want to remove the egg turner 3 days before hatch date. We are trying it for the first time and we have 6 hatched so far.

We just put eggs in our incubator yesterday for the same reason. I would love to see your brooder box.

Nature Right, Harris Farms (Tractor Supply) Mana Farms, all appear nearly identical egg hatchers. And they work great for me and people I know. Last year I coach a neighbor using one for the first time. She did great. This baby chicks are more grown up and laying eggs. Be prepared ahead if getting hatching eggs.

We had just decided to do this!

Your videos are always so helpful! We have the Nurture Right and had great success with quail hatching. We only had 2 not hatch. Will you also be showing your brooder set up and that portion? That is where we personally had issues...we ended up loosing about 6 if your quail after hatch in the brooder...they developed splayed legs and try as I might I couldn't get those to recover with the tips/tricks so I wasnt sure if it was how I set up my brooder which caused the chicks to have that issue. We had purchased adult quail just to release into our woods and the couple gave us eggs to hatch as a fun project for homeschool. We were able to release the living babies into the woods. I want to hatch pheasants, to release in our woods, next but will wait to see your brooder set up 😃

Just hatched on my farm 1st novice batch on the 4250. Highly recommend 2 add'l temp-humidity thermometer combo units with at least 1 having remote dual sensor for placement in ANY incubator. As luck would have it...my incubator had defective temp probe out of the box that factory ID'd and is replacing. W/o add'l thermometers you have no way to verify against factory temp pre-sets and digital reader on the 4250...or any other brand/mdl for that matter. It can be maddening! It took 4-5 days of cross checking temps and temp setting adjustments to get a lock on defective part(s) while managing correct temp/humidity range. At this point the eggs were committed for the 21 day haul...come hell or high water! Using my own eggs....Red Sex Link hens paired with Rhode Isl Red roosters. I had fertilization rate 37 of 40. Hatch rate was 22 beauties out of 40...but could have been 32+ of 40 after 10 "no hatch" autopsies and had I earlier followed gut instinct on day 22 1/2 and "assisted" the pipping at top side egg air chamber...and put eggs back into incubator. 10 chix were fully developed and normal but 9 suffocated due to leathery membranes sac...from last 2-3 days evidently low humidity spike....I was able to save 1. Lessons learned!!! First candling at Day 7 was difficult to differentiate. Culled 6 eggs 3 of which were definite dead eggs. 3 questionable....but did not autopsy. Day 10 candling was visually defining and much better. Be prepared to interrupt your sleep for night checks!! BTW...1 temp-humidity thermometer with remote sensor will let you set the Reader Display unit at bedside...for quik reference spot checks. Typical indoor-outdoor types available at most hardware locations.

I have a question would you get the 4250 farm Inovations as your second one or would you go with the 2250/3200 combo again?

I am getting ready to start some chicken eggs in my incubator since my chickens are about 3 years old now. I like to see what's happening so I would rather have the plastic one instead of the styrofoam one, even though it holds more.

You encounter loss with both incubation and brooody hens I personally have not noticed a difference in lost numbers with my incubator or my Brodie hens. I work with both! I ordered meat bird hatching eggs and chicks . I’ve been very lucky that we have not had the avian flu hit the hatchery’s that I’ve ordered from!

We have hatched chicks for many years in the Styrofoam one with great success. Matter of fact have some hatching right now! Our kids and grandchildren loved watching them!

Is there a updated video to this? Would love to see how it turned out

I threw out some eggs that were expired into my garden. Come spring I went out to turn my soil and I was chopping up the eggs and some had chicks inside the eggs that were dead. So I don't know if you are correct on eggs from a store not being able to be incubated. 🤷‍♂

What do you do with the non productive older hens?

I have a question. I am incubating chicken eggs and just went on lock down and today is day 19. We just had a storm roll through and the power went out! And now I’m freaking out because the temp in the incubator is dropping fast! What can I do?

Love my roosters !!!!! I have one that is kinda cranky, I call him my stupid rooster , the one time he actually tried to attack me , I looked at him and said “ do you wanna go to the soup pot ? “ he has yet to attack me again lol

Thanks for the video and info. Incubator prices probably a little more than necessary due to manufacturers added cost from people buying their product, using it to compare with other Incubators, and returning it with nothing wrong with it. Sure is hard to have a successful business these days!

Saw a channel yesterday, had their entire flock destroyed and can't have birds return for 150 days.

1) Incubators lie. Always use a backup thermometer/hygrometer in order to verify your actual temp/humidity. 2) I tried the Farm Innovators 4250 for quail and had a terrible experience; hugely fluctuating temps and humidity even though I had it in a spot out of drafts and wrapped in towels and had less than 50% successful hatch rate. FYI… it has overflow holes in the bottom, so will leak water all over if you overfill when trying to adjust your humidity. 3) At the same time, used a NurtureRight 360 with an equal number of eggs. I had it right next to the Farm Innovator and also wrapped with a towel to accomplish stable temp/humidity. Hatch rate 72%. Yay!!

Are they all plastic or foam ?? Which one is all plastic ?? With egg turner

I probably missed it if you mentioned this already - What is the maximum age of fertilized eggs to be successfully incubated and able to hatch? We just lost our one and only breeder rooster - just right after we finally sold all the lesser quality roosters (rookie mistake: we didn't think of a spare), so we're thinking of either incubating a few days old eggs or buy fertilized eggs.

They say rotate eggs 180° three times a day so an automated egg Turner is very nice

What is with the pointy end down garbage everyone is spreading around? Have you ever seen a hen make sure the pointy end of her eggs are down? Exactly how would she do that? Edit: I know this is for egg cup style brooders, and in that case it's the right call, but it's also why I will never use an egg cup style brooder.

Does the nurture right also hatch duck eggs?

Is there an update video?

There are many health issues when breeding hybrid birds such as ISA browns. You must also not breed them too early or too late in their life cycle. If the shell is too thick or thin there will be issues with chick hatching.. Breeding ISA browns result in chicks with kidney issues. Consider crossing Rhode Island Reds with white leghorns to create your own ISA brown sex link chicks. Hope this helps.

My grandmother did, but then she had a backyard

What was the outcome? I can’t find a video of them hatching

I’ve asked a few “farmers” for several doz clean, but unwashed eggs… yesterday we got 3 doz, 2 doz were dirty/poopy eggs… so I only could water bath about 1 doz. The others I washed and put in the fridge, is there some way I can “wash, without washing the eggs so I can use them to water glass them?

Did you remember to candles your eggs?

Both incubators should warm up for at least a day with a separate thermometer/hygrometer inside to compare actual temp with that’s set.

Where's the hatch video?

I treat animals more like people then disposable. Even if they don’t give me eggs, I still keep them around. Like my parents in a way. LOL

Old Farmers say POINTY EGGS are Rooster !!! Hope that's correct.

You'll be able to candle them in a couple weeks and find out what your fertility rate is.

Many big egg farms have a patented process of washing and sterilizing the eggs before incubation.

Every day 3 times a day turning

The incubator should be turned on at least 24 hours before you set the eggs in order to insure that the machine is properly working.

Your wrong about washing them. We wash ours and spray with peroxide. Our hatch rated are always 85% or better.. We also never open the incubator to remove chick's until 48 hours after the first egg hatches... We candle at 10 days, removing all dead eggs...

Indian Hindi MP Mandsaur good jobs

Long long intro and you just get the incubation process started. Not really a comparison.

My incubator is better. I set it and forget it. It’s called a silkie 🤣😂🤣😂if my silkies doesn’t work, we have 10 more silkies that are more than willing to take her place🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂👍🏼 but than again it’s only for home eggs not a business

I'm sorry but I have been hatching eggs since I was a kid I'm almost 67 years old now you never put eggs in an incubator without running that incubator for several hours to get it set properly I've never seen somebody put eggs in a brand-new incubator without running it for several hours